Paradoxical Interventions in Psychotherapy: A Scoping Review on ‘How’ and ‘When’ They Should Be Employed

Abstract

There is solid evidence supporting the therapeutic effectiveness of paradoxical interventions, those in which the patient is encouraged to maintain or increase the behavior or thought that s/he wants to remove. However, their use in recent years has been scarce, and there is little detailed information on how this kind of intervention should be employed. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to elucidate the particularities of its execution through a scoping review of the scientific literature. A search in Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, PsycArticles, Psicodoc, and PsycINFO databases was performed, and 20 articles were selected that meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results suggest that there is some controversy regarding when and how paradoxical interventions should be employed. However, paradoxical interventions appear to be especially indicated to treat sleep difficulties and high-reactant patients. There are also indications that paradoxical interventions could be potentially effective in the treatment of recursive anxiety. Further research is needed on the particularities of paradoxical interventions’ execution.